All well and good Bev this country (Scotland) would be okay. The British government have been having negotiations with a French company about building Nuclear Power Stations but it has fallen apart. They want to control the price of power being generated and the amount is outrageous. So they will not build them so now the government will have to find the money to pay for them. Scotland has a few hydo schemes and wave power is being developed and of course wind the price of electricity is a scandal now and the government is doing nothing about it. There are schemes between Norway and Scotland to have an undersea link to export power when it is required it is time the UK government got of its behind and woke up to electricity needs before it is too late.

In his book the biography of Margaret Thatcher, Charles Moore said that Margaret Thatcher was determined to crush the miners for costing Edward Heath the election. She told Willie Whitelaw to plan and instigate it but was warned not to put it into action right away as the government was not strong enough in 1979 but the plan was put into action after the next election.

Dave, how old were you again when there was the miners strike of 1972/1974, when the miners held the country to ransom to get what they wanted? I believe the first payrise was 21% and the 2nd 35%.

Been a few days since I was on MW.

The percentage of the pay increase is irrelevant. Example: If someone is earning £100 a week and we give them a 100% increase so they are earning £200 a week, they are still getting a low wage.

1972, the miners' pay was well below those in other industrialized nations. They had not striked since 1926.

Besides which, the miners hardly got rich. People working tough jobs in poor conditions and earning working class wages do not exploit the country. For exploiters you will need to look amongst the top 10% of income, and especially the top 1%, NOT THE BOTTOM 90%.

Seriously, WAKE UP.

It is not the working class, nor the unions that represent them, that are Britain's enemy.

The percentage of the pay increase is irrelevant. Example: If someone is earning £100 a week and we give them a 100% increase so they are earning £200 a week, they are still getting a low wage.

1972, the miners' pay was well below those in other industrialized nations. They had not striked since 1926.

Besides which, the miners hardly got rich. People working tough jobs in poor conditions and earning working class wages do not exploit the country. For exploiters you will need to look amongst the top 10% of income, and especially the top 1%, NOT THE BOTTOM 90%.

Seriously, WAKE UP.

It is not the working class, nor the unions that represent them, that are Britain's enemy.

You think I didn't know that 100% of nothing is nothing? And yes, I did know about them not striking since 1926. Wages did increase though and they were one of the better wages.

I don't agree with your point of view regarding the miners but hey, I only lived in an ex mining village (mine closed 1970). Am the grand-daughter of a miner, am married to a miner's son, who's grand-parents moved from Lancashire and Northumberland to work in the mines. Just one of those things that we will just have to disagree on.

Sid, I paid $140 AUS to watch Andy play tennis for an hour or so in Melbourne, not including my flights and accommodation. I saved for that for a year. I don't do luxuries (well apart from Sky) and I go without things so that I can have that special memory. Why tournies feel the need to increase prize money is beyond me. Maybe they feel it's like keeping up with the Jones - they don't want to be out done. Bet you if you asked any player, they would take the trophy over the money (though would like their travel expenses covered). It was my choice to pay the price for Melbourne as do the supporters of football in the UK.

That prize money increase actually benefits the lower ranked players a lot more - the ones who actually struggle to make ends meet.

Quote

"When we made our prize money announcement last year, there was a focus on players who lost in qualifying or in the early rounds of our championships," he said."These are players who are not multi-millionaires. They are players who are probably in the top 50 to 200 in the world."We wanted to do more for those players."The singles players who lose in the first three rounds at Wimbledon will see their prize money rise more than 60% this year, taking the overall increase for these players to around 90% over a two-year period.

Maybe ask one of the 1.2 million workers laid off during the 1972 strike how they felt about it. Or the 60,000 ICI workers given notice just days before an agreement was reached.

I'm still puzzled to this day why so many miners believed the tripe that twit Arthur Scargill spouted. He made sure he was taken care of good and proper.

Most of the miners didn't want the strike Bev! Scargill didn't even use the ballot box as he should have. Instead, he called an illegal strike. It wasn't the workers who were the enemy of the people.....it was the union leaders! They didn't give a toss about the workers......They were all well off! Maggie didn't try to 'break' the unions, but they were extremely powerful and they had this country by the throat! She just loosened their grip.......Somebody had to!